Category Society
Thoughts At 2 a.m.
No, I wasn’t awake at 2. It’s a song title. Written by Julie Miller and recorded with her husband Buddy a few years back. I had the album, Breakdown on 20th Avenue South, playing in the background Tuesday morning as I was working. I chose it as ambient music, something soft that wouldn’t distract me […]
Unintended
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we do some things. This was brought home to me when I looked out my front door Saturday morning to check snowfall accumulation and saw a pizza box sitting on my front porch. Obviously the delivery person had knocked on the door, then placed the pizza, and a bag […]
Back On Track?
Did you know Ottawa gets snow in the winter? And sometimes freezing rain? Of course you did. Do you know who apparently didn’t know that? The people who run our transit system. That has to be the explanation. The people in charge cannot possibly live here. Nor can they be aware of the weather we […]
Government Lies
At some point this year I expect we will be discussing the nature of government messaging and its effect on our society and on us as individuals. Perhaps to foreshadow that, here’s a post from January 2015. In our post-modern world Truth seems to have become a relative where it once was an absolute. Perhaps […]
Pandemic Aftermath
I did have a different post planned for today, but thought perhaps some humor might be appropriate for a Monday morning. Then I saw this online. 2020 seems so long ago. That panic buying and hoarding said a lot about our priorities, about us as a society, and about the fragility of the supply chain. […]
That’s A Wrap
The driver took a detour to get to our destination. Apparently there were road closures. It was December 26 and I wasn’t thinking about Christmas, but it wasn’t going to be Christmas in Egypt until January 7, as most Christians there follow the Julian calendar. Most church holy days happen a couple of weeks after […]
The Food Court
Every indoor shopping mall has one, and the bigger malls have more than one. But the food court at the Cairo Festival City Mall is different from anything I have seen in Canada. Not in terms of the restaurants, which are basically the same wherever you go. Yes, there are some Middle Eastern chains I […]
Deja Vu
The Public Health Agency of Canada announced it would not follow other countries’ lead to screen travelers from China for COVID-19. Just like in 2020. Then it reversed its decision. Just like in 2020. The Chinese government says such screening is racist and meant to punish the Chinese people. Just like in 2020. My suspicion […]
Another Year Ends…
I feel as if I should be marking the end of 2022 here somehow, but I am not sure exactly how. For many people it has been a year best forgotten quickly. The COVID -19 pandemic seems to drag on, though at least the panic part seems to have died down as we have come […]
Welcome to Boxing Day
There’s been a social shift in the past decade. Boxing Day is no longer what it once was. It used to be the day you got the best shopping deals, as retailers sought to unload leftover merchandise in the post-Christmas period. And they still do that. But the sales don’t seem as big. It’s Black […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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